merge

Borrowed from Latin mergō (“to dip; dip in; plunge; sink down into; immerse; overwhelm”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /mɜːd͡ʒ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /mɝd͡ʒ/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)dʒ

merge (third-person singular simple present merges, present participle merging, simple past and past participle merged)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To combine into a whole.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:coalesce

   Antonyms: divide, split

   Headquarters merged the operations of the three divisions.

   The two companies merged.

   • 1791, Edmund Burke, letter to a member of the National Assembly:

     to merge all natural and all social sentiment in inordinate vanity

   • 1835 January, [Thomas De Quincey], “Samuel Taylor Coleridge. By the English Opium-eater. […]”, in William Tait, editor, Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume II, number XIII, Edinburgh: William Tait […], →OCLC, page 8, column 1:

     Whig and Tory were merged and swallowed up in the transcendent duties of patriots—Englishmen—lovers of liberty.

2. To blend gradually into something else.

   The lanes of traffic merged.

merge (plural merges)

1. The joining together of multiple sources.

   There are often accidents at that traffic merge.

   The merge of the two documents failed.

2. (syntax) Within the Minimalist Program, a fundamental operation of syntactic construction

• merger
• merging

• emerg

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛr.d͡ʒe/
• Rhymes: -ɛrdʒe
• Hyphenation: mèr‧ge

merge

1. third-person singular present indicative of mergere

• germe

merge

1. second-person singular present active imperative of mergō

• IPA^(key): /ˈmer.je/, [ˈmerˠ.je]

merġe

1. alternative form of myrġe

• mere — Transylvania, Banat
• me — Maramureș, North Transylvania

Inherited from Latin mergere, itself ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mesg- (“to plunge, dip”), with a unique sense developing in Balkanic or Eastern Romance. Compare Aromanian njergu; cf. also Albanian mërgoj (“to move away”) and Sardinian imbergere (“to push”). The semantic shift could be owed to confusion with pergere or meāre.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmer.d͡ʒe/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -erdʒe
• Hyphenation: mer‧ge

a merge (third-person singular present merge, past participle mers, third-person subjunctive meargă) 3rd conjugation (intransitive)

1. to walk

   Synonym: umbla

2. (informal, by extension, of inanimate subjects) to move

   În punctul mort, o mașină merge numai din inerție.

   When in neutral, a car only moves through inertia.

   Planetele merg pe cer cu viteze diferite de a stelelor.

   Planets move in the sky at speeds different from that of the stars.

3. (by extension) to go (take oneself to somewhere)

   Synonym: se duce

   Merg la București mâine.

   I’m going to Bucharest tomorrow.

   Merg să mă întâlnesc cu soțul surorii mele.

   I’m going to meet my sister’s husband.

   Cu ce mergem, cu mașina sau cu trenul?

   What are we going by, car or train?

4. to be going, proceeding a certain way

   Cum merg proiectele?

   How are the projects going?

5. (impersonal, of beings) to be doing a certain way [with dative]

   Îmi merge bine.

   I’m doing fine.

   (literally, “To me it’s going well.”)

6. (informal) to work, to function, to work out

   Calculatorul nu mai merge.

   The computer doesn’t work anymore.

   • 1980, Marin Preda, chapter 9, in Cel mai iubit dintre pământeni [Earth’s most beloved son], volume 1, Bucharest: Cartea Românească, page 53:

     […] era clar, Nineta nu ezitase să curme singură o viață care „nu mai mergea“.

     Acum am o iluminare: nici a mea nu mai merge, adică n-ar mai merge chiar dacă printr-un miracol ași evada și reuși să fug din țară.

     […] it was clear, Nineta did not hesitate to put an end by herself to a life that “wasn’t working out anymore”.

     Now I have an epiphany: mine isn’t working out anymore either, I mean, it wouldn’t work out even if by miracle I were to escape and manage to get out of the country.

7. (informal) to pair well [with cu ‘with’]
   • 2008 March 14, Dan Diaconescu Direct‎^[1] (newscast), spoken by guest, via OTV:

     Unde ești tu, brânză Del,
     Cum mergeai c-un copănel,
     Roșii, ceapă și măsline,
     Îmi e-așa de dor de tine.

     Where are you, Del cheese,
     How well you paired with a chicken thigh,
     Tomatoes, onion and olives,
     I miss you so much.

8. (informal) to be acceptable, alright
   • 1980 December, Marius Robescu, Teatrul [Theatre]‎^[2], year 25, number 12, Bucharest, page 36:

     Bizar și comic și puțin tragic. Oricum, merge, e plauzibil.

     Bizarre and comical and a little tragic. Either way, it’s alright, it’s plausible.

9. (personal or impersonal) to be going on (to be about to complete a time interval, usually expressed in years) [with pe]

   Mergeam pe opt ani când am început școala.

   I was going on eight when I started school.

   Merge pe trei ani de când s-a închis fabrica.

   It’s going on three years since the factory closed.

The difference between umbla and merge is that umbla emphasises the act of walking itself (for its own sake or as opposed to other forms of locomotion), whereas merge is a less marked word which additionally can simply denote the action of going somewhere, which happens to be by walking.

This is not to say that merge cannot refer to mere exercise of one’s faculty of walking; for instance, “to learn to walk” is conventionally expressed as a învăța să meargă.

• “merge”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2025
• Iorgu Iordan, Alexandru Graur, Ion Coteanu, editors (1965–1968), Dicționarul Limbii Române‎^[3], volume 6, Bucharest: Academy of the Socialist Republic of Romania, pages 401–409